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Time for a reset? How to make your New Year’s resolutions work
The Conversation: New Year’s resolutions are set with the best of intentions. But they notoriously fail to translate into lasting behavioural changes. The new gym membership falls into disuse come February; items forbidden from the new diet sneak back into the pantry by March. Even goals to work less and spend more time with friends and family seem to fall by the wayside almost as soon as the holiday break is over and the brimming email inbox beckons. But recent psychological research highlights several reasons why these kinds of resolutions might actually work – as well as simple ways to set yourself up for success. ...
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The Year in U.S. Policing
City Lab: Whether or not he realized it at the time, McLay had crossed a line. It was a line drawn not by the Black Lives Matter activists who’d spoken out about the link between racial bias and police brutality throughout 2014. Rather, the line would be drawn by the police union representatives who would go on to spend much of 2015 denouncing seemingly any public statement that alluded to a need for changes in U.S. policing culture. “The police union went crazy in denouncing [McLay],” said law professor and policing expert David A. Harris when Citylab spoke with him earlier this year.
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Academic Success: Are Teenagers Paying Too High a Price?
NPR: Silicon Valley's Palo Alto school district is in crisis. The suicide rate for teenagers there is four to five times the national average. This tragic statistic has made the city a symbol of the pressure kids live under in affluent communities to get into elite colleges, to excel at everything, to succeed at all costs. This week, as high school seniors and their families gather around computers racing to finish their college applications, we ask whether the obsession with getting into the best colleges is hurting kids more than helping them, and what schools, parents and students can do lessen the stress. Read the whole story: NPR
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Give, if You Know What’s Good for You
The New York Times: Vancouver, British Columbia — IN the classic children’s story “How the Grinch Stole Christmas!,” when the Grinch discovered the true spirit of the holiday, his “small heart grew three sizes that day.” Dr. Seuss may have been on to something — because it now appears that acts of generosity may bestow physical benefits on the donor. To be sure, there is plenty to hate about the holidays, when we endure the incessantly cheerful sounds of “Jingle Bells” spilling out of every shop and fight our way through overcrowded airports. But the holiday season can also inspire heartwarming generosity unmatched by other times of year.
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Pupil Size: A Measure of Trust?
Scientific American Mind: Pupils are a rich source of social information. Although changes in pupil size are automatic and uncontrollable, they can convey interest, arousal, helpful or harmful intentions, and a variety of emotions. According to a new study published in Psychological Science, we even synchronize our pupil size with others—and doing so influences social decisions. Mariska Kret, a psychologist now at the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands, and her colleagues recruited 69 Dutch university students to take part in an investment game. Each participant decided whether to transfer zero or five euros to a virtual partner after viewing a video of their eyes for four seconds.
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Helping Some Students Fight Stereotype Threat May Boost Classmates’ Grades, Too
Education Week: Interventions that help to immunize vulnerable students against the damage caused by negative stereotypes may convey a kind of herd immunity to their classmates as well. That's the conclusion of two studies published online this morning by the journal Psychological Science. Psychologists from Stanford, Pennsylvania State, Columbia, and Yale universities found the classmates of black 7th grade students who had participated in an earlier study of an anti-stereotype intervention saw an academic benefit as well. Read the whole story: Education Week
